Dear Mudd,
I was thinking of ways in which I could improve The Muddraker when I thought of creating a Humans of New York-style page for our school. In my mind, the page would profile people in our community to highlight individuals at Mudd. But I didn’t actually put my thoughts into action until I had a long conversation with a Hoch worker after deciding to eat brunch alone one Sunday, and realized that there were so many people with so many stories at Mudd that I needed to tell. With this project, I wanted to spread positivity around campus, and spark meaningful conversations, as well as profile people who were integral to our community but might not be as well-known. That’s when Humans of Mudd became very much a personal project for me.
Right now, I’m absolutely heartbroken, as I’m sure many of you are. It’s not easy to leave a school and everyone that you love so much. I’m also disappointed that I won’t really be able to continue interviewing people for Humans of Mudd.
However, there are still a lot of interviews I’ve conducted over the past few weeks that I have yet to publish, and it’s my hope that I will be able to gradually publish them over the next few months, and they will touch you in some meaningful way. Some of these interviews are quite light-hearted, and I hope they’ll remind you of the good that can be found in life, despite all odds. Others, especially some of my last interviews, are not so light — coronavirus is a heavy topic to grapple with — but I hope that these will show you that you are not alone in your struggles, and remind you of our potential to be resilient.
So, I invite you to join me on this journey, and like and follow Humans of Mudd on Facebook, follow the Instagram page, and subscribe to email updates from the website as a way of keeping in touch with Mudd away from Mudd. We are never alone, and humanity is incredible in so many ways. I hope that Humans of Mudd may be a reminder of that, as well as a source of comfort and familiarity over the coming months. Stay strong. We will get through this together.
Michelle Lum
The Muddraker 